There are times that you might not have much leftovers left. Some scraps here and there or perhaps a couple of floor boards remaining. What do you do with those? How could you turn them into something useful and wonderful? Well we have researched a lot of DIY ideas that use small wooden surfaces and one of our favorite ones was how to make a Coat rack.

The premise is quite simple when you decide to make a coat rack; Take your plank of hardwood floor, drill and screw some hooks on it and mount it on the wall.

That would indeed make for a very simple (yet nice) coat rack. Here are some better ideas on how to make a coat rack that will add style and beauty to your wall:

Floral wallpaper wooden coat rack

Things you’ll need:

coat hooks (Kate mentioned that ebay and flea markets offer your best chance of finding something nice and vintage, but of course you can shop around if you want to)

screws

hardwood floor board (you can use two if you want something bigger though usually one is more than enough)

spray adhesive

scissors

ruler and pencil

drill

Preparing the wood

On a flat surface place your floral paper and spray the front of the wood plank with the spray adhesive. Position the plank on the paper and spray the back and the sides making sure to wrap the paper around without any bad folds or creases.

Cut the corners if you have trouble wrapping it or bring them round the back and glue them together.

Kate suggest at this stage that it might be a good idea to seal the whole thing with a mod podge or a sealant. This will help retain your florar paper pattern crisp, clear and make it a little bit shiny as well.

Adding the hooks

Using the ruler and the pencil mark where you’d like your hooks to be.

As you would with any normal piece of wood, drill holes in the same size as the hook holes onto the surface and screw your hooks on. You can paint the hooks and the screws to match if you want to with a small brush.

Drill bigger holes on the sides, always taking into consideration where you want to place it on the wall and you are done! Simple and easy we thank Kate for this tutorial!

Make a coat rack out of polished-wood

Another idea we liked is from “My Backyard Eden“. The premise is simple and similar to the floral paper coat rack tutorial… minus the paper.

Things you’ll need:

Wood polish (you can use what you have remaining from your floors if you’re lucky enough)

If your floor board is unfinished you can use a wood finish or a Dark brown/black spray paint

coat hooks (perhaps something less rustic this time to much the nice shine and polish

screws

hardwood floor board (you can use two if you want something bigger though usually one is more than enough)

ruler and pencil

drill

Making the coat rack

Preparing your floor board. If it comes with a finish you can use it as it is, but if you’d like to change its colour you would have to sand it down first, remove the previous finish and apply the new one. A bit of a hassle for one floorboard we think 🙂

Still, provided your floor is unfinished you can apply your own dark/light colour onto it with a primer and spray paint or any remaining wood finish you might have from installing your floors.

Adding the hooks

Similarly as above, using the ruler and the pencil mark where you want the hooks to be and drill holes in a size corresponding the one of the hooks. Drill bigger holes on the sides so you can place it on the wall and it’s done!

A quite easy and straightforward DIY project that can add some character and usability to your leftover wood floor boards.

In a similar fashion we found this tutorial from Casa Sugar that suggests of using door-knobs instead of hooks to make a coat rack. Quite fashionable and pretty we think!

Animalistic hooks

Lastly, a brilliant idea for a kid’s room is to use animal toys for hooks!

Taken from the lovely Apartment Therapy blog here is a tutorial that should work with any remaining floorboards you might have.

Things you’ll need:

Your leftover wood-floor board

A plastic toy animal. Preferably an unwanted/used one but you can buy your own. The ones Schleich makes are quite diverse and impressive.

a small hack saw

a few wood screws

epoxy glue

ruler and pencil

drill

Cut each animal in half and drill holes in the center the same size as the wood screws. Fill the hole with the glue, add the screw (head in first) and leave to dry for at least 24 hours.

Measure and drill holes on your board to mark where the hooks will go. When its all dry and ready screw the hooks onto your floorboard and you’re done!

Brilliant and easy, it’s a wonderful idea for a children’s room without too much hassle or money! If you are in a playful mood you might wanna make one for your room using only the butts instead 😀

There is no need for that excess floorboard to go to waste. With some ingenuity and basic DIY skills you can turn it into something impressive!